A little report of my annual trip to my local wargames show held in Bristol, including a few pics of the games on show.

http://wwiiwargaming.blogspot.co.uk/

Some nice looking games there, seems like you did pretty well on the prize front at MADFest as well! 

Nice report and pics Steve.
Cheers - Phil.

Nice pics and report Steve.
I had a weird moment, when I approached the dude who was running the 30 Years War table to ask what rules he was using, and he turned around and it was my old boss! I had no idea he was a wargamer! 

Hmmm, that is bizarre Chris! Maybe we should all come out of the closet more and declare that we are proud to be wargamers .

3The hobby that dare not speak its name.

Nice report, Steve. I gather the Napoleonic game on the hex terrain was 10mm? 

Quote from: Serotonin on 26 November 2012, 07:46:34 AM
3The hobby that dare not speak its name.

The Vice of the Dice.

Nice report Steve 

Quote from: Steve J on 26 November 2012, 07:42:12 AM
Maybe we should all come out of the closet more and declare that we are proud to be wargamers .

I've been more vocal at work about wargaming recently [particularly in the run-up to MADFest] and it's interesting - more people than I expected have at least heard of wargaming, a couple confessed to playing 40k / WFB in their youth, and a few more are (quietly) interested...so I'm going to offer them a game at some point after work 

QuoteThe hobby that dare not speak its name.

I think the nappies game was 6mm, but could have been 10mm. To be honest it was so cramped around that table that I didn't get the chance to have a really good look. I did notice that they had an unbelievable amount of hex terrain, as the hills were built up with hexes!

Lots of the chaps at work have played some GW stuff in their youth. Sadly they show no interest in gaming whatsoever .

Reminds me of a guy I used to work with- nice bloke, dead now, way too young  , but anyway when I joined the team he saw I received a package from Northstar and recongised it for what it was so 'came out' as a wargamer to me. The pair of us would have slightly hushed conversations in the work kitchen about gaming and whenever anyone else walked in he would change the subject. Im sure people thought we were having an affair.

Quote from: Serotonin on 26 November 2012, 11:41:19 AM
The pair of us would have slightly hushed conversations in the work kitchen about gaming and whenever anyone else walked in he would change the subject. Im sure people thought we were having an affair.

Quote from: Steve J on 26 November 2012, 10:53:55 AM

I think the nappies game was 6mm, but could have been 10mm. To be honest it was so cramped around that table that I didn't get the chance to have a really good look. I did notice that they had an unbelievable amount of hex terrain, as the hills were built up with hexes!

Yeah it was 6mm. They gave my son and good look at the hex scenery as he was fascinated by it, and they really did have an astounding amount of those Kalistra terrain tiles. Ive been tempted for a long time by them, but they sort of put me off by saying, when you first get into it and make a nice 6x4 board up with a couple of small features you can make a great looking table in 5 mins, but then the bug gets you and you spend a ridiculous amount of money on the tiles and a table ends up taking 2 hours to construct! It did look dead good though, it seems to me the best way Ive seen to represt hills and slopes without making static one use terrain boards.

Thanks for the report and pics Steve.
I like the Pacific island.

Quote from: Serotonin on 26 November 2012, 03:29:45 PM
Yeah it was 6mm. They gave my son and good look at the hex scenery as he was fascinated by it, and they really did have an astounding amount of those Kalistra terrain tiles. Ive been tempted for a long time by them, but they sort of put me off by saying, when you first get into it and make a nice 6x4 board up with a couple of small features you can make a great looking table in 5 mins, but then the bug gets you and you spend a ridiculous amount of money on the tiles and a table ends up taking 2 hours to construct! It did look dead good though, it seems to me the best way Ive seen to represt hills and slopes without making static one use terrain boards.

Yeah, a mate has a whole cupboard full. It looks very good once your eye has factored out the hexes! It's a pig to roll dice on, however. I've seen more cocked dice on his terrain than anywhere else. 

There is much to be said for a strict rule that all rolls must be in a designated box. And if the dice jump out, they are to be rerolled at a penalty. Protects figures and avoids acrimony about cocked dice.

Personally I'm a big fan of dice towers. Pop the dice in the top, let them rattle down through the baffles and then shoot out into the little tray at the bottom - easy and neat. And no opportunity for back-spin, dumping or any other shenanigins.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dice-Boot-The-Portable-Tower/dp/B000WZHB1O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354007888&sr=8-1 

I wish you hadn't told me about that!

Or a more stylish one (now OOP, but you can get a PDF version).

http://www.ghkuhlmann.de/W%fcrfelturm/wt1.htm

Actually, I might have a go at scratchbuilding one to my own taste while I wait for those Aztecs early in spring.